Pruftechnik Blog

laser shaft alignment

BFGoodrich plant trusts PARALIGN to eliminate its roll alignment problems

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BFGoodrich, the legendary tire manufacturer, counts itself as a satisfied customer of the Prüftechnik ParAlign roll alignment service, based on the results delivered at its Fort Wayne, Ind., plant.

“We have been running a superior product for six months since the alignment,” said Jay Linnemeier, the engineer in charge of the fabric calender at the Fort Wayne plant.

Before we detail the misalignment concerns at the BFGoodrich facility, let’s discuss why rollers’ parallelism in the tire industry is so critical.

 

How small misalignment issues become big ones

Today’s tires are a composite of several materials, including steel, nylon, polyester, Kevlar, and fiberglass. The structure consists of layers of coated fabric and metal belts produced by calendering. The machine used to coat the fabric with rubber is called the fabric calender or calender train. The material in these machines runs at approximately 150 to 200 feet per minute. Due to deflection and vibration, the slow progression of a few hundred-thousandths of an inch will eventually lead to alignment issues throughout the calendering machinery.

Misalignment produces problems with tracking and web thickness, resulting in a lower-quality product. Over time, it causes poor roll surfaces, worn bearings, and possible tears or breaks in the web. To consistently yield the best quality sheet, a calender machine requires constant attention and adequate maintenance. Routinely measuring rolls for parallelism ensures safe and efficient machinery and a high-quality end product.

Prüftechnik designed the ParAlign measurement system to adapt to all industries where sheets are produced with critical tolerances. Users place the device on the roll’s face and sweep it a minimum of 20 degrees on the roller’s surface. Measurements are determined by three, highly-precise, ring laser gyroscopes contained within the unit. ParAlign records calculations and sends the measurements wirelessly to a computer, laptop, mobile phone, or another smart device that displays a clear graphical report enabling speedy evaluations.

ParAlign captures measurements five to 10 times faster than traditional methods. The system can profile an entire machine in one day and precisely identify which rolls are causing problems. The diagram that accompanies all ParAlign services provides the horizontal and vertical offsets of each roll and simulates the web path showing where slack and tension could be occurring.

 

ParAlign uncovers more than one roll misalignment issue

BFGoodrich, headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., hired Prüftechnik and its ParAlign Roll Alignment Services to check for misalignment of the roller’s post-calender section at the Fort Wayne plant. The company sought to eliminate roll misalignment as a variable in a problem it was experiencing. The coated fabric was winding up with a wrinkle along the length of the web. Plant leaders knew it was occurring in the second half of the calender train and suspected it was coming from the overhead rolls just before the windup.

In less than a day, the post-calender section rolls throughout the plant’s first, second, and third floors were measured using ParAlign. By looking at the protocol results, it was apparent that the overhead rolls were misaligned. Some showed an offset as high as five-eighths of an inch.

The main scope of the work was to get a layout of the machine. However, in measuring the line, the protocol revealed an additional misalignment problem.
All the rolls in the festoon’s bottom row were leaning to the east, approximately 0.150 inches compared to the reference roll. They were positioned close to the windup, so it was suspected that this offset could be adding to the wrinkling problem. Ultimately, the ParAlign roll alignment system enabled BFGoodrich to plan and set a date for corrective maintenance immediately.

“We saw a drastic improvement,” said Linnemeier. “The Prüftechnik technology moves at a faster pace than the four mechanics could make the adjustments. It is also very impressive to make mechanical adjustments and verify the positions instantaneously—and accurately.”

As part of the ParAlign service, each client receives a readout of the current roll positioning for maintenance teams to address.

“The complete calender train layout and graphical spreadsheet are very helpful tools,” he added. “The layout lets you look at every roll location and relative position. With so many rolls to work with, this makes for cleaner communication between operators, maintenance, and the engineering teams.”

 

How the SHAFTALIGN Touch UI adjusts to your team’s experience level

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Need a rugged device that is user-friendly even in harsh environments?

ShaftAlign Touch, the latest addition to the Prüftechnik Adaptive Alignment family of products, boasts a user interface (UI) designed with your entire team in mind. The best-in-class IP rating of 68 means that it withstands even the most challenging environments.

But not only was it designed to tackle almost any alignment challenge—the 3D user interface adapts to users with different levels of experience.

Adaptive Alignment includes the hardware-software combination of single-laser technology and Active Situational Intelligence, or ASI. This unique and powerful pairing sets Pruftechnik products apart by making it possible for even novice users to achieve precision alignment consistently. Applying analytics in real time, Adaptive Alignment recognizes and filters out low-quality or erroneous data.

Low-quality measurements filtered out

The UI of the ShaftAlign Touch was created with several ease-of-use features, significantly benefitting new and less-experienced users. The large, touchscreen graphical user interface offers a guided workflow for clarity and simplicity. It takes users through quick steps: Dimension, Measurement, and Results. Users receive in-the-moment feedback about measurement quality, and any low-quality measurements are filtered out.

The exclusive Live Measurement Quality Factor Active Clock mode, with up to five measurement positions over a 360-degree shaft rotation, make the ShaftAlign Touch accurate to a T. Lastly, the integrated RFID tag reader automatically identifies the correct machine to be aligned and enables users to see its alignment history.

Other features that make the ShaftAlign Touch a user-friendly tool—no matter the user’s experience level—include:

  • Cloud connectivity fosters team collaboration: Measurement results can be shared instantly with experienced technicians anywhere in the world.
  • Live Mode that monitors alignment corrections in real time. Alignment conditions and corrections result in a smiley face when optimal alignment is achieved.
  • Streamlined documentation—thanks to an auto-save function, a camera with a flash/torch, and ARC 4.0 software.

The user interface of the ShaftAlign Touch enables any maintenance team member to succeed at a range of alignment jobs—without requiring extensive training beforehand.

 

Related articles:

https://blog.pruftechnik.com/the-shaftalign-touch-what-makes-it-adaptive/

https://blog.pruftechnik.com/shaftalign-touch-is-rugged-enough-to-use-anywhere/

https://blog.pruftechnik.com/6-reasons-why-pruftechnik-laser-alignment-systems-are-no-1/

ROTATEK rescues sand plant with help from PRÜFTECHNIK

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What started as a mechanical contracting business in 1993 has evolved into ROTATEK, a precision service company specializing in rotating equipment, including laser alignment, 3D metrology, field balancing, and vibration services. ROTATEK, based in Hackensack, N.J., also provides products and rentals, and its field service engineers are available for on-site, worldwide service 24/7.

ROTATEK’s field service engineers are available for on-site worldwide service 24/7.

 

A growing organization requires advanced tools

As ROTATEK’s laser alignment business has grown, so has its need for precise alignment tools, prompting it to begin using Prüftechnik laser equipment.

“Our first laser alignment tool was the OptAlign Smart,” says Steven Santos, ROTATEK’s founder and one of its field service engineers. “Great tool. We used it for 10 years without a problem.”

Santos researched other brands but wasn’t impressed with the products.

“They just weren’t on the same level as the Prüftechnik equipment,” Santos says. “They may have been cheaper, but if a cheaper unit is going take you a lot longer to do the alignment in the field, that doesn’t translate to saving money.”

Eventually, ROTATEK added RotAlign Ultras and later RotAlign Touch devices to its toolkit. They also began implementing vibration analysis to help troubleshoot rotating equipment in the field, leading to the acquisitions of the Prüftechnik VibXpert vibration analyzers and VibGuard advanced monitoring systems.

 

ROTATEK woos enterprise companies

In recent years, ROTATEK has provided its services to an increasing number of larger enterprise companies.

“We have a really good mix of different industries that we serve,” Santos continues. “In one week, we may be doing a turbine alignment with a laser tracker, and that same week we might do a 100-horse pump alignment with a RotAlign Touch.”

While his team could use a laser tracker to do a shaft alignment, it would take longer. Instead, they use the RotAlign Touch to do the same job in much less time.

“It’s faster to dimension the equipment. It’s faster to measure, see your results, and see your corrections,” he states. “You can also see your live moves right on the screen.”

 

ROTATEK solves root cause through expertise

A sand plant in New Jersey experienced a catastrophic blower failure that shut down its plant, costing as much as $50,000 in daily production losses. Of course, they called ROTATEK for its emergency rotating equipment services. Santos and his team responded quickly to assess the damage and get the plant back up and running.

“It was clear right away that the damage required a lot more than just a routine bearing replacement,” he describes. “The bearings, shaft, coupling, and blower wheel were all damaged beyond repair.”

Fortunately, the client was prepared with a spare rotor. The company decided that ROTATEK would work closely with their millwrights to ensure components were properly installed and the machine was reliable.

The team opted to assemble the rotors in a clean shop, minimizing the bearings’ exposure to sand and other contaminants. Once pre-assembled, the team closely followed the final installation procedures in the field. They carefully arranged the blower wheel’s axial and radial location, properly setting the radial clearance on the bearings, and checked the bearing face runout to ensure the bearings were correctly aligned to the shaft.

ROTATEK used its RotAlign Touch to precision-align the 350-hp motor to the blower. They successfully aligned the shaft to the tolerance with the coupling loose, and then verified in the final coupled state.

Monitoring the shaft with ROTATEK’s VibXpert II revealed some elevated vibration levels, indicating imbalanced mechanical looseness. Based on its experience with new rotor installs and the base and foundation condition, ROTATEK suspected this might happen and had informed the client in advance.

To meet production demands while operating at a safe vibration level, the company decided to reduce the blower speed during the midnight shift when no regular working millwrights were scheduled. The customer and ROTATEK developed a plan to correct the base issues and prepare the location for ROTATEK to balance the blower in the coming days.

 

ROTATEK got the dirt on a clogged dredge pump

The same sand plant had an emergency involving a dredge pumping plant, a marine vessel used to pump sand out of lakes and other bodies of water so it can be sold to municipalities to rebuild or enhance their shorelines.

“The dredge suffered frequent coupling failures, with each replacement coupling costing $7,000; not including the labor costs or $30,000 of production losses per day,” Santos explains. “And they had quite a few coupling failures in a short amount of time, so they reached out to us to diagnose and fix the problem.”

Santos and his team took a boat out to the barge with a variety of Prüftechnik equipment, including two VibXpert systems and a RotAlign Touch tool. The barge had a diesel engine, flexibly coupled to a large integral gear pump.

“We acquired an uncoupled measurement with our RotAlign and found excessive misalignment,” he says.

In addition to the misalignment, the Power Take Off (a foot-mounted component) was discovered to have severe angular soft foot. It didn’t have a strong mechanical fit, and the angular soft foot was so severe that it would take an inordinately long time to correct it using alignment shims.

“We recommended a product called RotaChocks, adjustable spherical chocks that could conform to an angled foot,” Santos continues.

For Santos, working on a ship with limited amounts of working space was a unique and challenging difficulty.

“It was a lot of out-of-position work. We were lying on our sides and working upside down,” he illustrates. “But in the end, we had a successful alignment that we verified with the RotAlign Touch.”

Santos and his team mounted the SensAlign heads and used Live Trend to monitor positional movement between the PTO and the gear pump.

Live trend setup
The Live Trend setup

The team went above deck and recorded vibration data through different speeds and processes. Santos and his team confirmed that there was no excessive positional travel.

“I think the movement that we may have recorded was less than two-thousandths of an inch. And they were working the barge hard—it’s not a delicate process when they’re mining for sand,” Santos says. “But we have Live Trend data to show that they didn’t have excess positional movement.”

washer hole
The equipment had cupped washers because the through-hole was so large that when it was bolted together, it mushroomed the washers.

 

Saving money with Prüftechnik tools

ROTATEK’s speedy response saved its customer a considerable amount of money on both jobs.

“The coupling was replaced three times prior to our service, and we installed the fourth one,” Santos explains. “Prüftechnik enabled us to give our customer the best of both worlds—accurate alignments and a product in RotAlign that helped us do more in much less time than a laser tracker.”

6 reasons why PRÜFTECHNIK laser alignment systems are No. 1

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Laser shaft alignment is the fastest, most precise way to align rotating equipment.  Prüftechnik, the inventor of laser shaft alignment, leads the way for cutting-edge technology, including our exclusive, game-changing Single-laser technology. Here’s a quick overview of why we’re #1.

To download the “6 reasons why PRÜFTECHNIK laser alignment systems are No. 1,” click here.

Customer loves his ROTALIGN Touch: “This tool is not going to let me down”

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RotAlign TouchNot everyone relishes doing difficult jobs at work. But Matt Joinson, owner-operator of Jaffray Millwright and Welding located in Jaffray, British Columbia, enjoys projects that may seem daunting.

“I like them all to be a little bit challenging—something different, something interesting,” he says.

Joinson works on a range of machinery across several industries, including lumber and mining. When every job offers new challenges and settings, it’s crucial to have reliable, consistent, easy-to-use tools.

One of Joinson’s go-to tools is the RotAlign Touch laser shaft alignment system from Prüftechnik. Leveraging its Adaptive Alignment features, such as single-laser technology and Active Situational Intelligence, Joinson can work on multiple machinery types—even in rugged environments.

He appreciates that the RotAlign Touch is designed for maximum durability in even the harshest conditions. He often labors in workplaces where the system’s waterproof, dustproof, and scratch- and temperature-resistant features may be put to the test.

“It’s reliable,” Joinson says. “I just know when I go in there and turn that thing on, it’s going to work. I trust it isn’t going to break on me when I’m using it. Everything is made well. This tool is not going to let me down.”

The biggest machines that Joinson services are not always the most difficult of his jobs. Sometimes small machines come with big problems.

“The most challenging ones, I find, are the smaller 75-horsepower units. The bases are in bad condition; you’re in a tight area,” He continued. “Those are probably the most difficult—they tend to have funny little issues you wouldn’t normally run into.”

Adaptive Alignment: ‘Move Simulator saved us a ton of effort’

When working in multiple industries and at various sites, your tools need to offer consistency and repeatability. The RotAlign Touch does, says Joinson.

“It’s accurate. It has repeatability. You have to have that.”

One of the distinguishing features of the RotAlign Touch is Virtual Move Simulator, or VMS. VMS simulates horizontal and vertical movements to calculate the moves needed to precisely align shaft couplings—it can even simulate the alignment of multiple couplings at once.

To use VMS, a millwright measures the alignment of the assets, enters an estimated amount of change or shimming, and gets predicted results on the screen. If the virtual moves will precisely align the couplings, the screen displays a smiley face.

VMS helped Joinson on a recent job. “The Move Simulator helped us make decisions on the most efficient and effective moves,” he says. “Having that helped us power through a job on a big conveyor drive. We were doing a pretty unconventional thing at the customer’s request. The RotAlign Touch made it easier.”

The RotAlign Touch can address almost any alignment situation and a wide range of asset types. Adaptive Alignment, a term used by Pruftechnik to describe specific features in alignment products, helps users make as few movements as possible while increasing the accuracy of alignment—regardless of the location, team, or other unique environmental factors.

“I did a reasonably large machine earlier this year, and the measurement features were able to deal with the backlash and the rough surfaces. The good-quality sliding bracket really made my job a lot easier when I had a fixed machine to deal with. It worked seamlessly, and I had repeatable measurements. On the same job, they asked me if I could do a machine train.”

Machine trains are more complex to align, but the RotAlign Touch kept it straightforward.

“I had good luck doing a machine train, and it was kind of an unconventional process they wanted me to do. It all worked out really well,” he continued. “There were two gearboxes, around 40,000 pounds apiece. The couplings were really large in diameter. The RotAlign Touch made that job go a lot smoother—everything was straight and true. It was quite a long process, and the battery held out all day.”

RotAlign Touch is a value from every angle

Joinson values his RotAlign Touch for reasons big and small. Prüftechnik goes to lengths to ensure build quality, customer value of features, and other such details. The goal being a product that customers will rely on for decades to come.

“The touch interface is good, even wearing gloves. The slide caps over the safety lenses—the Prüftechnik ones are robust compared to other brands. It’s those little things that really bring it over the top. And it’s easy to clean at the end of a job.”

According to Joinson, “When you work in mining, a clean tool matters.”

Matt Joinson can be reached at [email protected]

Related articles:

How Live Move reduces alignment time and increases precision 

What does it mean for a laser shaft alignment system to be adaptive?

SHAFTALIGN Touch is rugged enough to use anywhere

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SHAFTALIGN-touch_rugged-water_social_featured_image

The ShaftAlign Touch, the newest laser shaft alignment system from Prüftechnik, is designed to stand up to the harshest conditions and environments.

Its capabilities and ease of use already set it apart from competitors in the premium entry-level category. But the latest addition to the Adaptive Alignment family also has an IP rating of 68, making it the most rugged tool in its class.

Protection against the elements

An IP (ingress protection) rating, defined by international standard IEC 60529, signifies the degree of protection provided by electrical enclosures against the intrusion of dust, water, and other objects. The specific rating offers more information and certainty than the simple claim that a tool is “waterproof.”

An IP rating of 68 means that the ShaftAlign Touch allows complete protection against dust; that it is “dust-tight.” The rating also means that it can be continuously immersed in water up to 1.5 meters deep.

Dust is common in industrial settings, including during the processing of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and more. Drills, saws, and grinders are a few types of tools known for generating dust. If you align machinery in an environment including these types of tools or processes, you need a tool that will keep the dust out.

Temperature and battery life challenges

In addition to water and dust, the ShaftAlign Touch can withstand temperature extremes. It works in temperatures ranging from as low as -20°C to as high as 50°C (-4°F to 122°F).

The battery life for the ShaftAlign Touch is 11 hours. So no matter what conditions you may find yourself working in, you can trust that the battery will last as long as the job does.

You may never need to use a laser shaft alignment system in such extreme conditions. But many industries present challenging settings, and some jobs are more stringent than others. Make sure you choose a laser shaft alignment tool that is tough enough for any job.